Chef Requests!

Boy, the cooking directives in this house are constantly changing these days.

First, there's the taste buds -which are VERY selective -of the two youngest members of the family. These two could live on macaroni and cheese -most of the time, anyway. About the time I figure they should be really hungry and I definitely don't feel like fixing two separate entres for supper, and I make a big dish of homemade macaroni and cheese, that's about the time neither of them are actually hungry for that particular meal, or so it seems.

The son-in-law -with him and his odd hours of arriving home for supper, I try to plan items that will reheat easily and not taste totally like cardboard then in the process. Although, he generally will eat most anything I cook, his big thing is that he doesn't care for spicy foods and thinks I use too much seasoning in a lot of my cooking. And I think a meal without some zip to it is about like eating cardboard. Hmmm. Why worry then about the reheating issues turning things to cardboard then, when they're already going to taste like that to me?

The 18-year-old has now decided she wants to try to eat foods the would be a form of natural products for acne. Now this idea kind of has me a bit stumped as the subject was just brought forward last night at supper when I had made sweet and sour chicken over rice. If I know her though, this probably came from reading some high-faluting fashion magazine or some such that one of her friends at school probably had access to. If she doesn't show me something in black and white, detailing more of what she thinks she means, well that idea is going to go down the tubes with no further adieu.

I have enough issues right now in the kitchen trying to balance the menu with certain pastas the little ones will eat, stuff that can be reheated easily and also, my own concerns as I try to curb my intake on foods high in cholesterol, sugar, and my favorite things -pastas, of course!

Some days, I just try to fill up as much as I can on tossed salads with lots of extra fresh veggies in that -mushrooms, green peppers, onions -of course -and now and then, an occasional hard-boiled egg sliced up and on top of the mix. Then, I just eat much smaller portions of the stuff I think the kids might eat without too much of a fight. Unfortunately, that is usually those darned lovely pasta things though.

Oh well, I'm surviving as this is really not a starvation diet for me and there's always the need to take good old Sammy for a walk too!